Spurs guard George Hill reacts after making a 3-pointer in front of Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki

Spurs guard George Hill reacts after making a 3-pointer in front of Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki

Image 2 of 3

Spurs guard George Hill reacts after making a 3-pointer in front of Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki

Spurs guard George Hill reacts after making a 3-pointer in front of Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki

Image 3 of 3

A rally, by George: Hill sparks Spurs to victory

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

With 4:12 left in the fourth quarter Sunday, Spurs guard George Hill floated baseline and tossed Tim Duncan his birthday present.

On the day he turned 34, Hill figured, Duncan deserved to make at least one basket.

By the end of the night, after the Spurs had pulled out an improbable 92-89 victory over Dallas in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series almost despite him, Duncan was celebrating with the rest of the AT&T Center.

Behind a playoff-best 29 points from Hill and an unlikely boost from unlikely sources, the Spurs survived one of Duncan's worst postseason games to push the Mavericks to the edge of elimination.

“I couldn't hit the side of a barn,” said Duncan, who finished 1 of 9 for four points, his lone basket coming off a rare Hill miss. “It says a lot about this team we could fight through and find a way to win.”

With the victory, the Spurs pushed their series edge to 3-1 as the festivities return to Dallas for Game 5 on Tuesday.

That sort of lead isn't always insurmountable — though in the Duncan era, no opponent has overcome it against the Spurs — but the way the Spurs got there is significant.

The trio of Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker combined to go 9 for 34 and score 31 points. Held scoreless in the first half of a playoff game for the first time in his career, Duncan often looked 44, not 34.

Hill, who was 11 for 16 and made 5 of 6 on 3-pointers, matched the Mavs with 11 points in the third, helping cap a comeback from as many as 15 points behind. Richard Jefferson (15 points) and Antonio McDyess (10 points, eight rebounds) added timely shots.

“It's a team game,” Hill said. “You can't just rely on the Big Three. It's going to take all 15 of us.”

At this time last year, the playoffs were famously not for Hill, McDyess was battling LeBron James as a Detroit Piston, Jefferson was on vacation as a Milwaukee Buck, and Blair was a college sophomore at Pittsburgh.

During the Spurs' pivotal 23-6 third-quarter run, those four players accounted for all but four points.

“Without their play, we would not have won,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “It takes a little bit of everybody.”

The Spurs took a 66-59 lead into the fourth. By then, the Mavs were coming unglued.

Dirk Nowitzki, en route to a series-low 17 points, picked up a technical late in the third. Eduardo Najera was ejected 47 seconds into the fourth for a takedown of Ginobili, who was playing with a lucha libre-style tape job on his broken nose.

The Spurs pushed back. Jefferson took a flagrant foul hacking Nowitzki, while Blair picked one up for toppling Jason Kidd.

For much of the night, the Spurs were battling without their stars. Perhaps playoff moxie was to be expected from Jefferson and McDyess. They are veterans who have played in NBA Finals.

But Hill and Blair? A second-year man and a rookie?

“They're not afraid of anything,” Duncan said. “They're not worried if it's the playoffs or whatever else. They're playing the way they play.”

Ginobili, too, was unfraid. The lead teetering again, Ginobili found himself with the ball in the corner and a hand in his face.

He drained his only 3-pointer to give the Spurs an 89-84 edge with 1:51 to go.

Without a rookie, a second-year player, an erstwhile Detroit Piston and a former Milwaukee Buck, the Spurs never would have made it to that point.

“We had a lot of guys step up and change the game,” Duncan said.

For the brand new 34-year-old, that was perhaps the best birthday present of all.